Messy Fun

Over UEA I thought it would be fun to make Halloween sugar cookies with the kids. We set a time and a date and invited my mom and my sister Jenny and her kids to come over. As soon as the dough was out the kids just went crazy. They had flour everywhere and were rolling dough and cutting out shapes like mad. They had a blast!! It definitely did not look like it does on tv when they cook with kids, all nice and neat and clean and all. There was dough and flour everywhere. On hands and arms and feet and faces. In hair and eyes. Not to mention the counter, stools and floor. But, believe it or not, I just ignored the mess and got into it with the kids. This was their day for some cooking fun. They were so happy and proud and excited over their cookies. After the mess was done we got on to the really fun part, decorating! The kids had all the frosting and sprinkles their hearts could desire. They were so thoughtful with each cookie they would decorate. They each made special ones for their moms and dads. So cute. I put my mom in charge of the frosting and the red food coloring did not get along so well with her :).

At the end of the day, with the mess cleaned up and gone, we reaped our reward of wonderful and delicious Halloween cookies. Tony especially loved his 'special cookies' that the kids made for him. So yes, the fun was worth the mess!!

It's Christmas-time!?!

As we woke up this morning and looked out the window to find over 6 inches of snow, Cody says,"It's Christmas-time!" Followed by,"Let's get out the snowmobiles!" We sure were surprised to see so much snow. While we were getting ready for church Cody kept insisting,"It's not church day. It's Christmas day." It took us a while to convince him that, no, it was not Christmas day yet. And that it truly was just 'church day'. He was sure disappointed.

After 3 hours in church, the kids could hardly wait to play in the snow. Even all the kids in primary today had 'play in the snow' wiggles. But boy, I definitely don't miss the days of hats, gloves, coats, boots & scarves for 3 kids strung all over the place. But I guess those days of winter are coming. The kids love playing in the snow and love the hot chocolate that follows even more!

We love Conference!

Every year we look forward to General Conference. My kids especially love conference. Lauren was counting down the days till conference all last week. We make a big deal about it at our house and have some fun traditions which I think is why we all love it so much. Sunday morning we sleep in and stay in our pajamas. Then we all go to work fixing a huge breakfast which we refer to as our "Conference breakfast". The kids love to help and love to eat it even more. After breakfast the kids play conference bingo while we watch it together. They get pretty into it, mostly because of the fun prizes. We also have cards with pictures and facts about each apostle. When someone is speaking they pick out their card and set it up on the t.v.. It's been a great way for all of us to get to know them better.

On a more serious note, I love conference. Each talk had something in it that I could relate to, that I needed to hear, and that brought me closer to my Savior. I needed the spiritual recharge that can only come through conference. Not only were the talks wonderful, but the music was inspirational. Seeing the children's choir on Saturday was so emotional for me. It reminded me of my primary kids and how much I love them. I love our prophet. What wisdom and love he powerfully conveys as he speaks. Throughout conference I just kept thinking of how blessed I am to be a part of this church. I am now looking forward to finding more "joy in the journey" and hoping that my conference 'high' will last as long as it can.

Strength in numbers

This past weekend I was able to attend the General Relief Society meeting at the Conference Center. A big group of ladies and friends from my ward all went down together. We had a blast!! As we entered the Conference Center and saw all the women gathered, my friend says to me,"Being here with all these women feels powerful". Her comment brought a tear to my eye. What power a group of righteous women and daughters of God can have. I loved each of the talks and came home wanting to do better. Wanting to try harder and focus on the things that really matter.

After the Conference we went to dinner at Biaggi's in the Gateway. The food was great! The company was great! And I can't remember the last time I stayed out till midnight. Thanks for a fun night girls!!

Feeling Domestic

I love harvest-time! When the mornings and evenings become cool. The sun rises later and sets sooner. The trees and plants in the garden finally bear their fruit. And thanks to my great neighbor Tracey, she shares in the harvest of her peach tree every year. It is the saddest looking tree around, but it grows the best peaches and this year was a winner crop. I picked a 5 gallon bucket full for our family and went to work. I made fresh peach shakes, several batches of peach jam, peach cobbler, pies and had fresh peaches in my cereal. After all of that, my bucket was still almost full. What more could I do with these peaches? Wanting to learn a new skill, I called Tracey over to help teach me how to can them. I have never canned before and thought this would be a great opportunity. After some tutoring(thank you Tracey) and messy work(can you say 'brown fingernails'), I had a dozen beautiful bottles filled with peaches. What a nice addition to the food storage. I now feel like a true mormon wife, and, Oh, grandma would be so proud!

It has happened!!

So......for all of these years I have been so grateful that my kids have never cut their own hair, or worse, someone else's hair. But, IT HAS HAPPENED. Somehow I thought we just might make it through these toddlers years unscathed by the 'I cut my own hair' catastrophy. But, alas, it has happened in the Allred house. And many of you may be in shock that this is something Cody hasn't tried yet (I am a little too). Let me give you the details :).

It was a beautiful day and Mom needed some time away from the house and kids. This leaves Dad as the only supervising adult in the house with 3 kids and a very important football game to watch. You know where this is going. Upon my return home I notice scissors in the front room. Questionable, but I then think nothing of it. After giving Lauren a bath I notice TONS of hair in the tub. Questioning, I ask her,"Why is all that hair in the tub." She responds, calm as can be,"Oh, Cody gave me a haircut while I was practicing the piano." In my mind I refer back to the scissors I saw in the living room. I then frantically look at Lauren's hair to assess the damage. Not too bad (luckily), just bits and pieces gone here and there. I then run to the living room looking for precious locks of Lauren's hair on the ground. None to be found. Strange. Later, I ask Tony if he knew that Cody had cut Lauren's hair and he says,"Oh, that explains all the hair I found in the toilet." Now I am really questioning what all happened while I was gone when my husband did not seem alarmed by this discovery. Then, I go to comb Cody's hair and something is not right. Could he be a victim too??? Sure enough. A big chunk gone right out of the front. I ask him,"Cody, who cut your hair?" He responds with famous words,"Lauren did it."

So.....there you have it. The 'he cut mine, so I cut his' barbershop playtime that occurred while mom was getting some time off.

Mother-Daughter Team

Mothers and daughters do lots of things together, like: go shopping, go to lunch, get pedicures, visit grandparents, go to movies and Jazz games, go to quilt shows and so on. But not many mothers and daughters run races together. I am so proud to say that my mom and I ran in the Legacy Parkway 5K race together on Saturday. We had a blast!!! My mom was very apprehensive about it, but I kept telling her she could do it and that we were going to do it together. Once we committed to do it, we decided we didn't want to just run to run. The Hess Cancer Foundation was the charity sponsor and we got to thinking of all the women in our family who are battling cancer. My cousin Cheri (who is only 37 years old) has breast cancer and just had a double mastectomy and is undergoing chemo-therapy. My Aunt Deanna has ovarian cancer and is on her second round of chemo. And my Aunt Sharry is on her third round of chemo for ovarian cancer as well. These women who we love so much and have prayed so much for were our reason to run. We ran the whole race together and as we held hands and crossed the finish line my mom got all teary. What a great accomplishment and a great reason for us to have finished our race together.

In addition to my mom and I, all of my cute friends also decided to run this race too. We started the summer with the Syracuse 5K and wanted to end the summer with one too. It has been so fun to have run all of these races together. What great inspiration and motivation they have been to me. We even met up with other ladies from our ward who participated as well (and my bro-in-law Mike rode his bike). Here we are the day of the race.....
And here we all are the next day - cleaned up and rested.....
Congrats to everyone for not only running, but for finishing in style!! I figured that between all of us: Cami, Natalie, Rachael, Hollie, me, Joni, Faye, Melinda and Judy running - plus Mike and Ashley on their bikes, we covered 77.6 miles!! What a way to start a Saturday morning. Now I can cross 'running a race with my mom' off of my life's list of goals. And I can hope there will be more opportunities to do it again!! I love you Mom!! I love you girls! Way to go! We did it!

Go Cougars!!

Another season of BYU Football has started. And as tradition goes, my dad takes Connor each year to a football game. They went to the game against UCLA on Saturday which was a complete blow-out for BYU, winning 59-0 (as Connor says ..."TOTAL DOMINATION")!! Connor loves spending time with his grandpa and enjoyed having an entire day full of 'boy' fun. They stopped at Cabella's on the way down to Provo and played in the shooting gallery. They went out for lunch and hung out at the tail-gating party. They got pretzels and drinks and snacks. Talk about a young boy's dream day. Connor is now working on memorizing all of the players names (thanks to Grandpa buying him a game program) and is already looking forward to next year's game with Grandpa.

Finally.....Back to School!

So...many of you are probably thinking, "school started a couple of weeks ago." And, yes, for everyone but us, this is true. This year our kids started in a brand new school that was not ready for the kids to start until last Friday. We tried our best to enjoy our pro-longed summer vacation without any harm coming to any of us (barely made it :)). As much as I LOVE being with my kids, having them around me and doing fun things together.......105 days (who's counting?) of summer vacation is an extremely long time to be an 'entertainment director'. We definitely enjoyed our time together, but it was sooooooo time for school to start. Connor is in 3rd grade this year which is just crazy. He has already made so many new friends (no surprise) and has all their phone numbers scribbled on little scrap pieces of paper. Lauren is in 1st grade and can't get enough of school. I miss her being home with me. We are best friends and I am so sad we won't get to have any time during the day together. She is such a social butterfly and loves to learn. She has always been the teacher's favorite.
One thing the kids are most excited about is that they get their own locker. Yes, I said, locker. Lockers are no longer saved for Jr. High anymore. They are small lockers that the kids keep their coats and backpacks in. This is just another way that the kids are growing up way too soon.
As for me, I hope to get a lot accomplished now that the kids are in school. 105 days without a break from the kids can leave you a little crazy, and your house a little crazy too. Cody and I will have lots of one-on-one time which I think will be good for him (for me, I'm not so sure). I definitely plan to help in the kids classes a lot and hope to have more time to finish all my unfinished 'projects'.
More than anything, I am so glad that my kids are back learning and studying and expanding their minds. I really think this will be a great school year for us all!!!

Cody's Birthday Extravaganza

We have had quite the party weekend at our house! Friday, Saturday and Sunday consisted of birthday parties for Cody (we call this the 'birthday mardi gras'). I think Cody was slightly disappointed that nobody showed up tonight to bring him presents :). He loves trains so he got some for his birthday to both eat and play with. He got a whole Geo Trax set which has been so much fun! He loves it! Cody thinks that driving the train himself is just the coolest thing. Forward, backward, forward, backward, up-the-hill, down-the-hill, up-the-hill, down-the-hill and so on. When we would ask him how old he would be on his birthday he would hold up three fingers and say,"seben(seven)." He loved all the attention and company this weekend and will hopefully just want to play with his Geo Trax for hours on end.

Happy Birthday Cody!!

I can't believe my little Cody is 3 years old today! He has brought so much excitement and joy to our family. There is never a dull moment when Cody is around. He keeps us all laughing and loves being the center of attention. None of us can keep up with all of his energy! He loves to play outside and would ride his bike all day if I let him. Reading books, playing with trains and driving his trucks are some of his favorite things to do. He is sweet when he wants to be, and gives the biggest hugs and kisses around. Being friendly comes naturally to him. He will talk to anyone and always asks me,"How you doin', mom?" What a sweetie! He is so smart and can do anything that he sees you do (this has been a problem). He goes by many names: bud, buddy, chubba-bub, bubba and sometimes, trouble. We love Cody so much and are so glad he is our little buddy. Look how much he's grown........

My 'Good Fortune'

Somehow I got the luck of the draw as a teenager. I was blessed with the most wonderful friends through Jr.High and High school! Friends who helped to make you a better person than you thought you could become. We all still stay in touch and get together for dinner often. Tonight we met at the Mandarin in Bountiful and had a great time. It is so nice to get together and see that none of us have changed. Our friendship now seems just as it was 15 years ago. As we talk, we all have the same worries, fears, goals and hopes for the future. We still confide in each other and draw from each others strength. I feel so blessed to have these wonderful women in my life. I love you girls! Oh, and my fortune was: "You have a fine capacity for the enjoyment of life". I think it should have read: "You have been blessed with great friends who've added much enjoyment to your life."